Sanctuary
by Naisumi
Summary: And now for something different...--it's all Mor and Shind0's fault! ^.~ [Slash--Pietro/Todd]


Title: Sanctuary  
Author: Naisumi  
Rating: PG-13   
Pairings: Pietro/Todd, Todd/Pietro (don't freak out ^.~)  
Disclaimer: You've _got_ to be kidding...^.~  
Archive: If you want, but could you tell me at least?   
Warnings: Slash, for one thing ^^; um...right.  
  
Notes: Okay, there are several things that are responsible for these three pages of crap. 1) Me talking to Shindo, 2) Shindo giving me little snippets from her Toddage fic, 3) My brain suddenly correlating "sexy" with Todd. Horrified as I was, I was determined to squash my sudden Todd obsession, and so decided to write a fic. ^__^ Guess what, Morwen! It worked! *cheers* Anyways, so after writing this, I'm back to correlating Todd with "little brother." *sigh of relief*  
^^ I hope you like this little blurby thing that I wrote in an IM window with Shindo. The idea of Pietro/Todd belongs totally to her; I only wrote a blurb that snowballed into...this.  
  
Enjoy, and please give me C&C!!!  
  
  
Additional Note: I asked for a random setting, and Morwen was the one who gave me "on the steps of an old cathedral on a rainy day." Thank you!! And also, thank you to Shindo for liking every crappy thing I write lol ^-^;; I dedicate this to her, along with the nifty well scene at the beginning of the Cauldron.   
(this is NOT betad)  
  
"blah." People speak  
-- uh...scene switch  
  
  
--  
  
Through the silver mist that drenched the rose-tinted world, he could see the granite figures of stately gargoyles. In them, he could see protection, shelter, refuge. In them, he could see coveted purity and stoic acceptance. In them, he wished he could feel the warmth of humanity.  
  
Todd heaved a soft sigh, his breath frosting the air before him in a mimic of ice over a pond. He pressed his knees tighter against his throat, wrapping his arms about them to still some inner chill while ignoring the wintry aura of autumn's coolness. The drizzle of rain was like liquid ice, biting into his skin with the sharpness of a million icicles. He wished he could stay in the rain forever.  
  
Soft footsteps echoed in the pavement, painting his world with quiet clipped sounds and pattering raindrops. Behind him, brilliant white clashed with the drab grayness of pouring rain. Keen azure eyes took in the dusty golden mane plastered to his cheekbone and feverishly warm forehead, his distant jade eyes, and the bitter smile that graced his lips.  
  
The steps of the ancient cathedral pinched at his skin as he unfurled himself, sitting somewhat normally. Somewhat. A mirthless laugh threatened to burst from his lips as he turned to meet the vaguely worried gaze of one whom he called a friend. Todd reached one long-fingered hand to brush away the wet hair, turned dark bronze by the dismal rain. Silence settled between them--the lanky youth with too-wide eyes and the stiffly standing comrade, grasping an umbrella tightly.  
  
"So...why're you here?" Pietro didn't bother to move, just let his eyes rove over the drenched figure of his friend. Todd quirked an eyebrow, ducking his head slightly yet never removing his gaze from the piercing blue. A deft motion of his shoulders was a shrug, a small twitch of his pale lips a joking yet unhappy smile--all faked emotions, except for the tiny glimmer of blazing despair that colored his jade eyes.  
  
Todd eyed the willowy boy in front of him, for once not feeling the energy to jibe at him or tease him jokingly. In response, Pietro arched an eyebrow and took one step down the ascending steps. "The weather gettin' ya down, Todd?" The amusement was too real to be just that. Todd knew. He wished he didn't--wished he could feel abruptly heartened by the grin behind the quirky boy's voice. Instead, he just chose to notice a tiny detail--that when Pietro smiled like that, faintly and almost tentatively, he seemed almost angelic. Welcoming.  
  
Todd's silence was enigmatic; as much of a shroud as the downpour that enveloped the crumbling cathedral and its stony guardians. It puzzled him sometimes, Pietro frowned, that the youngest of them would have such moodswings. Sometimes energetic and happy, at other times, dark and almost moody.  
  
The downy-haired speedster continued his descent before finally reaching the crouched youth. With a small flick of his wrist, he swung the umbrella around to shield both himself and Todd. Though recieving no reaction, Pietro ignored the silence and carefully extracted his coat from his limbs, draping the garment about the other boy's shoulders. "You looked a bit waterlogged there, Toddie," Pietro grinned at him, hoping to elicit a response. After a few more quips, the cerulean-eyed boy sat down beside the still boy and rambled, happy at the lack of interruption. It was only when agile fingers grabbed the front of his shirt and pulled him two inches away from jaded emerald eyes, did he recall that someone else was there.  
  
"Don't call me 'Toddie.'" Pietro stared, feeling heat flood his cheeks, and batted at the offending hand, only to fall still as his senses caught up to his whereabouts. The aroma of drenched sandalwood with a dash of vanilla pervaded his sense, along with the droplets of clear water trickling down Todd's forehead and diverting to the side when they met his arched eyebrow. His breath was ragged, the air before him misting with the exhalations, his shoulders hunching and tensing repeatedly as he stared with overwhelming intensity into the crystal blue depths. Pietro tried not to think. He _couldn't_ think. Abruptly the innocence that he had recognized as Todd was writ over by the raw blazing twin orbs of green that seemed to peer into the corners of his soul. The expression on the lanky boy's face seemed almost desperate, yet also willful--as if he had seen the ends of the world and was determined with stark enormity to prevent it.  
  
Pietro managed to stammer out an uncharacteristic apology, feeling as if he had just gazed into the twin stars of blazing eternity, before stumbling back a few steps yet staring, still, at Todd. The other teen had since ducked his head, his mop of unruly saffron hair shielded his eyes from the pattering rain that once more assaulted his unmoving body.  
  
Tentatively, the silver-haired boy held out the umbrella again, taking a small step towards his quivering companion. Then, through the burdened air, he heard Todd rasp out hoarsely, "...sorry about that...it's just...bad memories, yo." Pietro relaxed slightly, his brow furrowing delicately at the sound of his friend's voice. Had he been crying? Had the rain just masked the tears of sorrow? Or had he just not noticed through the fiery intensity of the jade gaze.  
  
Carefully, Pietro crouched down beside his friend once more, noting the way Todd still carried his shoulders stiffly despite his drenched state and his trembling frame. Noting the way his hands clutched tightly to each other, as if he was afraid of letting himself go, letting himself drift away into whatever darkness existed before the present.  
  
Then, he asked quietly, "Do you want to talk about it?" Todd gave no answer, no physical reaction nor a shift in stance. Instead, he slowly lifted his chin, meeting the concerned steel blue gaze with his own, and inquired in just as even tones, "How long do you have?"  
  
Pietro tried not to start at the bitter words, dripping with satirical amusement, dry irony, a tinge of remorse. This wasn't the Todd he knew. This was an empty husk, with mind afire and eyes alight with feverish desire for love and friendship. This was a capsule filled to the brim with rippling bitterness and liquid sorrow, waiting to burst open at a moment's notice. This was despair in its entirety.  
  
In that moment, the cerulean-eyed youth mentally reviewed all the answers he could give, and the silence stretched on, the minutes trudged into the misery with heavy feet, and the rain continued to shower silver about them. Then, he asked, just as carefully as he had approached Todd, "How much time do you want me to give?"  
  
Then, a downpour of a metaphorical sense erupted. The torrents of rain was mimicked in its entirety by the bitter agony of a childhood soured, and the grievous tales unfurled their wilted petals as Todd broke down the walls about himself out of sheer desperation, and sheer will. Pietro held him close, cradled him near his heart, and listened to the iron in his voice, felt the trembling of his body, and saw the flush of exhaustion overwhelm the intense fires of determination.  
  
Was it determination to bear both the future and past alone? Or determination to continue on without the aid of friends that were now near? Or, could it be, the determination to remain unbroken, uncrippled, independent of all the desperation that ghosts of the past had wreaked? Pietro wasn't certain, and only knew that he could entangle his slender fingers in the sleek drenched hair of his friend, gently whisper the fears away, and silently be awed by the strength and willpower of that whom he called a friend. Or was it more?  
  
There was no absolute boundaries now, as the two sat on the dilapidated church's steps, in the pouring rain, with no heat but from the wan sunlight and each other. And Pietro listened to the sound of the pattering raindrops, the sound of Todd's heart mending, the sound of something new emerging from their friendship. And the gargoyles around them sat in impassive silence, their stone glowing a little warmer, a little more alive--offering their unlimited sanctuary and refuge to two lost souls, who might not have needed it after all.  
  
  
fin  
  



End file.
